Recycling machinery company Erema Group manufactured 290 extruders for recycling during the company's 2023/2024 financial year, generating a total of €380 million in sales.
That compares to €355 million in sales in the 2023/2022 financial year and production of 350 extruders.
The Ansfelden, Austria-based company provided an update on company operations, which currently has around 8,500 machines and components in operation in more than 100 countries and employs 950 people worldwide.
"We are proud of this result for the financial year, considering the current state of the economy, but we have a cautious outlook for the coming months," said Manfred Hackl, CEO at Erema Group.
During yesterday’s Sustainable Plastics Livestream on the way forward for plastics recycling in Europe, Hackl emphasised there are reasons for cautious optimism about the future of the industry.
He shared that in the last two years, Erema alone brought 3 million tonnes of recycling capacity for extrusion into operation. That brings the company’s total recycling volume to more than 25 million tonnes per year worldwide.
“If we keep moving forward together as we did in the past three to five years, we will meet the [2030 recycling content targets],” Hackl said. “It’s not an easy job, but together the plastic industry can move forward with recycling – we have to be optimistic.”
While the plastics industry is still having a tough time competing with low priced virgin material, particularly in Europe, and companies still face high energy and production costs, Hackl sees opportunities in the current situation.
“We are using this time to further optimise our processes and invest more in research and development,” he said in a statement. “Our aim is to continuously increase the added value for our customers and be ready for the next phase of growth."
During the livestream, Hackl said that while the European market ‘isn’t growing as fast as it could’, markets like the US and India are picking up the slack.
Erema has invested over €110 million in expanding and modernising its international locations over the past five years. This spring, Erema North America opened its extended customer technology centre equipped with new machines. The company also opened a new R&D centre at its headquarters in Ansfelden last year, when it celebrated its fortieth anniversary. Together with Lindner, Erema founded Blueone Solutions in August 2023, thereby extending its portfolio to include washing technology.